An U.S. fast food chain lands on the Italian market (2021)
The Client
An U.S. law firm, representing an important American fast-food chain, contacted our law firm since the Client has an expansion project in Italy. The CEO was Italian-American and had a number of contacts in Italy, so he had the dream to expand its chain in Italy, being it the first country of expansion of its franchise chain in Europe.
Although the Italian food sector is quite full of franchises of every size and type, this fast-food chain had some peculiarities vis a vis the other chains already present in Italy. In addition, there was a very interesting location already selected in the center of Milan, ready to be used by the first Italian franchisee. The period at that time was not very favorable – being Italy in the middle of the Covid epidemic – but for the same reasons there were a good financial opportunity.
We had a number of preliminary conversation with the Client’s law firm and with the CEO, in order to make them familiar with the main features of Italian Franchise Law, as well as of the Italian food market, after which we agreed non the legal advice needed to open the first fast-food point in Milan.
Our activity
Since there was already a planned timetable for the opening of the first franchisee’s fast food, our activity was performed in a brief period of time, basically consisting of:
Our legal advice was carried out during some months, after having previously agreed with the Client the area of the activities. Basically, we performed the following services:
review and redrafting of the Client’s disclosure franchise document, compliant to Italian Franchise Law. Since the client was adopting a disclosure document drafted according to U.S. legislation – much more detailed than the Italian – we selected the number of information necessary under Italian Franchise Law, in order to make the document simple and clear, and translated it into the Italian language.
review of the Client’s standard franchising agreement, together with its attachments, according to Italian Franchise Law, translating it into the Italian language. Such activity was rather challenging, since there were many differences between a standard American franchising agreement ad franchising agreements used in Italy, not only from a legal point of view but also from a commercial point of view.
Thre was a very positive atmosphere with the Client and its law firm, that made it easier to perform our activity very effectively and in a short period of time. The first fast food restaurant was opened successfully soon after the end of our consultancy.
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